


It's About Where We Are and Where We Are Going

by Devilc



Series: MCU Earth 19999.5 [3]
Category: Gifted (Movie 2017), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 05:23:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14181741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devilc/pseuds/Devilc
Summary: A part of Bucky itches to join Steve on his excursions into the rest of the world. He doesn't for two reasons: he's not quite ready yet (and he knows it).  And there's no such thing as a dull day in Wakanda.





	It's About Where We Are and Where We Are Going

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: This is a sequel to The Elusive Phenomenon of Turbulence ... now that I have seen Black Panther, an idea sprang into my head. Cleaned up and tweaked from the version at my DW account.
> 
> Also, Black Panther joss'd some of the events of that story, or, the way I figure it, if the MCU is Earth 199999. The MCU/Loki-Steve-Swap-Verse is Earth 199999.5
> 
> Title comes from this quote:  
> “Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going. Space travel benefits us here on Earth. And we ain’t stopped yet. There’s more exploration to come.” Nichelle Nichols
> 
> The characters from the MCU and Gifted are copyright their respective owners. This is a work of cracky whatiffery written for the hell of it, not for the megabux.

A part of Bucky itches to join Steve on his excursions into the world outside of Wakanda. He doesn't for two reasons: he's not quite ready yet (and he knows it), and the two of them are at a higher risk for detection than Steve alone. Still ... he wants to meet the "street level Avengers" that Steve found in NYC, if nothing else for the pleasure of being around his fellow New Yorkers, and because Steve's sketches of them both in words and on paper are so evocative: the Catholic Ninja; the twig of a woman who can bench press a car, drink an elephant under the table, and doesn't take no for an answer; the wronged man who has risen above; the billionaire who's the anti-Tony Stark.

(The kid from Queens is no longer so close to Tony, but Steve's going to wait a bit before he makes contact again.)

Steve, being Steve, also does the Irish Catholic thing over the fact that while he and the Avengers saved the world, "the Incident" (as New Yorkers call it) had a radical impact on a lot of lives, in some cases, devastating. He beats himself up over not having paid more attention to what happened after the dust had settled. Before Bucky can offer a beer and a shoulder to rant on, Roberta comes at Steve with a straight up no shitter that starts with, "Do you have a pair of eyes in the back of your head?" and goes from there.

Roberta's having an interesting time in Wakanda ... for all that people here more or less look like her, and she's not subjected to various kinds of racism anymore, at the end of the day, Roberta's not _African_ , she's African- _American_ and belongs to none of the tribes and their culture is not her culture. Though Wakandan food is delicious (Frank has a theory about trace amounts of Vibranium in the soil contributing to the taste), it's not the food of her roots. Roberta turns her hankering for soul food into a food truck with a fanatic following. ("Wakandan food is great, but they didn't have my succotash.") Three students from the local culinary academy have apprenticed under her. She makes so much money that Frank teases her about having a secret printing press in a hidden compartment in the back of her truck.

Frank's job at the Wakandan Academy lasted for about 5 seconds. He now works as a "cultural attache" for T'Challa's outreach program. Or as he puts it one night over cold beer and Jenga, "I'm a kind of spy, Bucky. I'm out there, in the open, Wakandan flag on the lapel of my suit, straight up telling people I report to Ambassador N'Gao, and you wouldn't believe half the crap that comes out of some asshole politicians' mouths the moment we're even remotely alone." He takes another swallow of beer and carefully stacks his piece, "And, not all of them are republicans or white --"

"White people are not the only race that spawns village idiots --" Roberta cuts in as she whisks away a bag of chips and sets down a plate with some fresh vegetables and a little of her homemade ranch dressing and tells them with a look that the chips will stay where she puts them.

Frank picks up a carrot stick and continues, "And then I tell my bosses what got said to me and they adjust the plans for that community. I really wish they'd let me wear a wire -- but I know, I know, the goal here is not blackmail -- but just ... why would you say some of those things to some guy you just met?"

"Frank," Mary pipes up as she takes a bit of bright red bell pepper, "the problem is, you're thinking of this all logically -- the logic behind good manners, and ethics -- and idiots are like irrational numbers. The normal rules don't apply."

Frank nods at that, dips a cucumber slice into the dressing, and talks around it. "Oh, and that CEO guy that Steve mentioned? He's reached out and asked about co-sponsoring a technology center in the Bronx. I'll be part of the team meeting him in a week." He gives an epic eye-roll. "I can't wait to hear the things he says when he thinks nobody's listening." 

Bucky also plays a lot of pool with Frank and Mary. One night as he wins (again), she asks him where he learned his applied geometry. "Here and there," he replies, deciding that she doesn't need to know about the math of sniping.

Mary proves that youth is wasted on the young. She mastered the traditional Wakandan system of mathematical notation in about two weeks. After three months she's reading at grade level in Wakandan, but taking math classes at the University of Wakanda, where her in-depth knowledge of both the Western and Wakandan mathematical systems mean that she's assisted more than one professor prepare work for exchange with the rest of the world. "It's the Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics department, mostly, Bucky. The Math professors have been reading works from the West for centuries now, but those other departments are mostly used to reading and writing Wakandan notation."

She's chosen along with several other "gifted youth" for a visit to the laboratory of Princess Shuri. It's all she talks about for the next week.

But, perhaps most important of all, Fred the cat has also decided that Bucky is his human. He purrs like a buzzsaw and snores to shake the dust from the ceiling. Bucky wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
